Wallflower Project: Asphodel
by Papilio.Ageha
Summary: It was the sole reason why assassin didn't need friends. IllumixOC.


**Here's my first OC fic in this fandom. This will be a collection of oneshots with different pairings on each story/chapter. Rating and genre may vary as well. The characters and summary will change every time I update.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but storyline and OCs.**

**Pardon me for bad English and typos.**

**Note: This story takes place years prior to the story. Illumi was still a teenage here, not an excel, emotionless assassin he has manage to be in Togashi's story.**

* * *

**Asphodel**

_IllumixOC_

_It was the sole reason why assassin didn't need friends._

It was a cold autumn night. The rain was pouring down hard as if the sky had been crying. A lonely man lurked in a dark alley at the outer skirt of a small town. There was blood all over his clothes. His hand clutched his left stomach, which was severely injured. The man leaned his shoulder onto a cold stone wall and rested his head. He breathed heavily as he tried to suppress the pain.

Illumi Zoldyck never believed in such a thing called _luck_, but if he had to describe his current situation, the best word for it was no other than _out of luck_. Several hours ago he had gone for a job of assassinating a boss of a group of raiders called White Snakes. It had been an easy job and he had eliminated the target without much problem. But then, when he had been about to take his leave, the raiders had found him. They had attacked him and he had had no choice but to fight back. It had been a time when a single person assassination had turned into bloody massacre. The raiders had been no match for him, but it had been impossible to get out without injury. As the price of annihilating the entire group, he suffered a severe wound on his stomach and broke an arm.

His body went numb. He could barely feel both the cold and pain. His vision darkened, his limbs losing their strength. It looked like the blood loss was more terrible than he had thought and he might have a fever due to the infection.

'Pathetic.' He thought. _For a Zoldyck to fall like this..._ He didn't even have the face to call an aid from his family.

Finally his body betrayed him. Everything became pitch black and the sound of the raindrops eventually faded.

* * *

Bright. It was the first thing that came into Illumi's mind as he slowly opened his eyelids. It took several blinks until his eyes were completely adjusted to the light and saw the white ceiling clearly. He tried to move his fingers, but he could only feel his left hand. He shifted his head to his right hand and saw it was covered by thick bandages. He shifted his head again and looked around. The scene was foreign for him. He didn't recall where he was and how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was he had been in a dark alley. He tried to recall the detail of the event, but his memories were vague.

He sat up to get a better view of the place. It was a small room with a single bed where he was in, an end desk, a cupboard, a chair beside the bed, and two windows with pale yellow curtains. It didn't look like a hospital, the place he had expected to be once he saw the bandages. It was more like a bedroom in a civilian's house. Had someone found him and taken him into their house?

He heard a creaking sound and turned his face to the door where the sound came from. There he saw a little boy was peeking through the crack. They stared at each other for a while. The boy then turned around and closed the door with a loud bam sound.

"He's awake! The onii-san is awake!" He could hear the boy's voice, accompanied by descending footsteps. A minute later, he heard footsteps again. This time, it was more than one person.

The door was opened widely, a girl around his age stood at the frame. Her breaths were short because of the run she had just had. A smiled bloomed on her face as soon as she saw him.

"Thank Goddess, you've regain consciousness." She beamed. Her long black locks swayed when she walked to the bedside and sat down. "How do you feel?"

He just wordlessly stared back at the stranger instead of answering. Upon receiving no answer from him, she decided to change the question. "Do you remember anything about yourself..? Family? Past events?" She asked in concern.

"Yes." This time he answered, albeit short, and nodded slightly.

She sighed in relief as she learned that at least this man hadn't suffered any fatal injury that would have caused him to lose his memory. "You see, I found you lying unconscious in the rain last night and brought you here."

"Is that so?" He replied while staring blankly at the blanket. So he had really fallen at that time. That was really pathetic.

She watched him for a while. It seemed that he didn't want to talk about anything at the moment so she decided to take her leave. "I'll go get something to eat." She said as she stood up and walked toward the door. She was about to close the door when she suddenly stopped and looked at him.

"Oh, how rude of me. I haven't introduced myself." She smiled sheepishly. "My name is Amaya. You can call me if you need something."

* * *

"Are you sure you won't say anything to the police? Everyone freaked out when they heard the news about the attack."

Illumi glance at the girl who sat next to the bed then closed his eyes. "Yeah. After all everything happened outside the town." It not like he _could _tell about it to the police either. He was an assassin and he got the injuries during his job. It would only get him into trouble if the police knew about it. That's, of course, if they believed in his story... Which he doubted they would.

"Well, if that's what you want..." She shrugged. "Just a curiosity though, you don't have to answer my question if you don't want to... But, what actually has happened to you?"

He thought for a while before replying. "It was a fight."

"Really? Those injuries don't look like the one you'd get from a normal fight though. I thought you were attack by robber or something." She commented.

"It's because my opponents were quite many. That's it."

"So it's one against many? Wasn't it kinda unfair?"

There was nothing called fair and unfair in his world, he mentally noted.

"On the first place, why were you ever engaged in such a fight against them?'

Her questions started pestering him. At first she sounded quite polite, but now she was asking personal question. Whether she was aware of this or not, he had no idea. Nevertheless, he was still answering to her. "Because I pissed them off."

"How?"

"By killing their leader."

Her eyes bulged. "W- Why?"

"Because it's my job." He didn't know why he told her everything. Perhaps it was because there was no reason to hide the truth from someone like her, or perhaps it was just because he wanted her to stop interrogating him.

"By _job_ you mean... you kill for living?"

"Something like that."

She didn't say anything in reply and he didn't mean to continue the conversation. There was a gap of silence between them. After a while he saw her shoulders shake slightly. At first he thought she was trembling because now she had known what kind of person she was with... but he was wrong.

"Illumi-san you're so funny."

She laughed.

"If you didn't want to answer to my question, you could have just said so. You didn't need to make up a story like that." She wept a drop of tears on the corner of her eyes.

'That wasn't a made up.' He thought. But it was useless to say it to her. After all, normal people would never believe such a thing.

"But you really got me there." She said, still half laughing. "At some point I really believed in your words."

"What made you think that it was a lie then?" He asked. He didn't know why but he felt slightly curious.

"Because you really don't look like a bad person at all." She grinned.

"Bad person?"

"You know, the one with huge muscular body, scars, dreadful look..." She started counting with her fingers.

He sighed at the girl's helplessness. "That's only on TV..."

* * *

"Illu-nii~ Illu-ni~"

"Hey, you two. He's still sick." Amaya scolded her twin younger brothers, who were clinging to Illumi asking for piggy back.

The twins pouted. "Muu... but he could do it yesterday." Said one of the twins.

"Still, he hasn't fully recovered yet." She said, dragging the two identical boys away from the ravenhead. "If you wanna play, play with Kenji instead. He got plenty of free time."

"No. Nii-chan is short. It's not fun." Said the other twins.

"HEY!" Kenji, the second oldest out of the four siblings, looked up from his game console and protested. "I'm not short. I'm _still_ growing. And I'm not _free_."

"We want to play with Illu-nii." The twins looked at their older sister with puppy eyes, too bad that she was already immune to those pleading eyes.

"No." She crossed her arms and replied sternly.

"Pretty, please?"

"No."

"Stingy!" They stuck out their tongues and ran outside.

"Actually, I don't mind if it's only piggy back. My wounds are almost healed." Illumi said after the boys left.

"That won't do. You can't spoil them too much." She sighed and shook her head. She then side glanced to him. "Speaking of which, despite your look, you get along really well with kids."

'What do you mean by despite my look?' He mentally asked. "It's because I have younger siblings as well."

"Eh? Really?" Her eyes sparked in excitement.

"Yeah. I have four younger brothers."

"Wow... Your home must be even more crowded than mine. I thought mine was the most crowded."

"Not really. Our home is quite big after all." He gazed to the window tried to recall his so called _home_. The Zoldyck's manor at Kukuroo Mountain. It was indeed big. It still looked spacious even with no less than a hundred men living inside.

"Hey..." She said. He turned to her because of the sudden change in her voice. "Are you sure you don't want to call your family? I mean, it's been a week."

"It's not necessary." He answered nonchalantly. "And they better don't know about my injuries at all."

"I know you don't want them to be worried, but still..."

"Worried? No, that's not the case. My injuries will only bring inconvenience to them." Even thought he had eliminated the target on his last job, it would still count as a failure and bring disgrace to his family's name.

"You're wrong!" She suddenly stood up and pounded the table. "There's no parent that doesn't care about their child well being. My parents lived oversea because of their jobs, but I know they love me and my brothers. I believe in them. That's why your family must be-" She stopped on her track when their eyes met and covered her mouth. "S- Sorry I've gone too far." She looked down and sat back down on her chair.

'Our worlds are different.' He wanted to state that, but he couldn't. She didn't know anything. She wouldn't understand. No one would.

But somehow he felt a little burden was lift as they talked about this. He wondered why...

* * *

"Hey, let's get outside. The weather is very nice today."

"I rather stay here."

"No, you're coming with me. It's good for your rehabilitation."

"As you wish then."

Somehow Illumi found himself being dragged by Amaya to the local market. She bought some daily needs and made him carry half of the groceries, saying that it was a good rehabilitation for his healing arm.

He looked around while waiting her shopping. The town was small yet gave of warm feelings. The townsfolk looked really closed to each other as they occasionally stopped to talk with each other.

"Hey, isn't that the injured man you found days ago?" He overheard an old woman talking to Amaya.

"Oh, yes. He's the one. " Amaya replied.

"Is he still staying at your place?"

"Mh-hm. He hasn't fully recovered after all."

"Is it safe? I mean, living with a stranger under the same roof? There's only you and your younger brothers, right?" The elderly asked in concerned.

"It's okay. He's a good person. Besides..." Amaya paused. Her smile bloomed. "He's a friend now."

_Friend_, huh... It was the first time someone ever mentioned him as a _friend_. It sounded silly, as they barely knew each other. But somehow... it also sounded nice.

* * *

"Hey, what would you like to have for dinner?"

Illumi looked up from a book he had been reading and replied to Amaya's question. "Anything is fine."

"Right. Even if she asks us what we want to eat it'll end up with the usual potato stews." Kenji commented without looking away from the TV.

"Oh... So what does my dear Kenji want to eat?" She teased.

"Sukiyaki!" The little brother replied with enthusiasm, hoping that his sister would really cook his preference this time.

"Okay. Potato stews then." She grinned ear to ear.

"I KNOW IT! YOU'RE ALWAYS LIKE THAT!" He roared. "You stingy, old hag!"

A vein popped on her head. "What did you call me just now?" She locked her brother in her arms and squeezed the younger kid.

Illumi watched the siblings fighting. Sometime they looked like they were really trying to break each other's neck, other time they looked as if they were only playing. The twins also didn't look like they would arbitrate the fight either. Instead they cheered for them and started betting who would win.

This family was really odd. They were all odd, especially _her_.

And then they suddenly stopped. Four pairs of dark brown eyes stared at him.

"What?" He asked.

"Illu-nii... He... He smiled!"

He what?

The said person covered his mouth and touched his lips with his long fingers. Indeed he felt the muscles on his cheeks were somewhat different but he didn't realize that he had just... smiled.

"Wow, it's the first time I've ever seen that!" Kenji said in awe.

"It's decided! Let's celebrate it! We'll have sukiyaki tonight!" Amaya cheered, followed by her brothers. "I'll go buy the ingredients now." She said as she took a rattan basket from the table.

"But it's raining outside." Illumi said.

"It's ok. It's ok." She smiled as she wore her riding hood. She then looked at the twins. "Be good kids when I'm away, k?"

"Okay!" The twins answered. "Take care, onee-chan." They waved to their sister as she went out and ran in the rain.

Kenji turned to Illumi and said. "Our town is safe. You know, it was also a day like this when she found you back then." The boy put his hands behind his head and laughed. "Maybe this time she'll find a lost puppy or kitten."

Illumi looked at the window. The rain was pouring quite hard outside, just like that time.

And it made him felt restless for an unknown reason.

* * *

He ran in the rain. His hair and clothes were drenched, but they didn't slow him down. He ran through the field and entered some narrow alleys, the short cut she usually took to get to the downtown. The kids said it usually only took half an hour for her to go to the market and get back home, yet it had been two hours since then.

He had had a bad precognition and he regretted he hadn't listened to it.

'Let her be safe. Let her be safe.' He repeatedly wished as he bitted his lips. Praying was futile, he knew it. Nevertheless he couldn't help as it was the only thing he could do now.

Still, praying was futile.

His feet slowed down and finally stopped. It was the very alley where he had fallen. Funny that now the memories came into his mind. The walls, the floors, the raindrops, the smell of blood...

It was just another cold autumn night. The rain was pouring down hard as if the sky had been crying. It was crying. It was mourning.

There was a figure of person lying on the ground, just like when he had collapsed. But this time... it wasn't him. The thin body was drenched in both rain and blood. The skin was pale white, contrast to the black locks that were disheveled on the stone floor.

Their places were switched.

The only difference from that time was that the one lying on the floor was soulless by the time he found her. On the wall next to her was a 'S' letter drawn with white paint, the insignia of White Snakes, the group that was supposed to have been annihilated.

And once again everything went pitch black. There was nothing but the reeks of blood.

* * *

"I want to become friends with Gon."

"No, Killu, you can't. You don't need friends."

_People who lived in the dark side didn't need friends. No, we didn't deserve any friend._

_As we would only bring misfortunate, sadness, and death._

* * *

**Asphodel means **_**my regrets follow you to the grave**_**. That explains almost everything, right?**

**Hope you like this story. Please review. Any kind of comments and critiques are welcome.**


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